Thread: Charnley Question?

oil helps with reducing resistance on the stone i use oil on my translucents arks surgical black ark and cf

Both oil and water are used as lubricants when honing, it is the nature of the stone that dictates wether it is preferable to use oil or water. Although I am a big fan of the Charnley's capabilities I prefer my water stones. The subsequent mess is far easier to clean.

Lets just talk about my CF:
A CF was my first finisher and if I were to have to give all stones up but one, I would keep my first. I've used my CF with both water and oil and the reason to use oil is to make a CF stand out in the crowd. You must remember that CF's are slow stones and require a lot of laps to get your razor just right. With water, there are better stones, particularly a thuringian. On oil a CF is simply amazing, but you must be patient. I have experimented with water, 3n1 (too thick), sewing machine oil (about right), Kroil (a bit thin), and a mixture of sewing machine oil & Kroil. I have come to like a ratio of 75% sewing machine oil/25% Kroil for my CF after a LOT of experimentation.

This stone is best used after 12K if you are using Nani's or 16K if you are using Shapton GS's. You will also hear that it takes a lot of passes, on the softer blades like the Sheffields I start with 50-75x & on the harder blades I start at 100x, adding 2-3 drops of oil to the stone at about 25x.

There was a very nice looking CF in the classified's the other day, may still be there. If it's there, you could contact the seller to see how that stone behaves as all natural stones have their own personalities.

For final finishing, I use oil on my Charnley Forest hone (and all novaculite) to get maximum keenness on the edge. No cutting slurry particles are suspended in the oil. There are several other final finishers that I use oil on as well. I use Norton Sharpening Stone oil.
I have no problem with it being messy. It is only messy when the oil stone is “not” your final finisher. Then you have to clean the blade of all oil or it will contaminate your next stone in the progression. Hope this is some help.
MIke





St Etienne stone, Vosges region of France